Open your Bibles, please, to Hosea chapter 9. Hosea chapter 9. We come back to this amazing Old Testament book. Hosea chapter 9. Hosea was one of the prophets. And I'd like to just read a little piece to you about the prophets to Israel. This is from Charles Pfeiffer's book on Old Testament history. Notice this because sometimes we think of these prophets in isolation. We have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, and so on. Listen to this. Israel's prophets were primarily messengers of God, divinely commissioned to present God's Word to men. The popular concept of the prophet as one who predicts the future is alien to the spirit of biblical prophecy because it does not describe his true function. The prophet is a spokesman and it was in this sense that Aaron was termed a prophet. or spokesman for his brother Moses, Exodus 7, 1 and 2, as Moses was a spokesman for Israel's God. Since prophetism became an institutionalized human movement, we should not conclude that all who came to Israel professing to present a message from Yahweh were completely pure in their motivation. Amos found it necessary to deny any connection with the professional prophetic guilds of his day. Amos 7, 10 to 17. Among the foes of Jeremiah, get this, were false prophets who assured the people of Judah that God would break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar within a short time. Jeremiah 28. Such prophets may have fancied themselves patriotic in predicting good things, but history proved them wrong. Nebuchadnezzar's armies destroyed Jerusalem. The prophet who gave a favorable oracle would often be richly rewarded. For many believe that the prophecy itself had power to affect its accomplishment. Jeremiah's unfavorable prophecies would be interpreted as curses and effort should be taken to silence him. It was considered appropriate to reward prophets for giving favorable messages. So we think of prophets, good prophets like Hosea, but we may forget about false prophets who perhaps were rewarded for what they said of a favorable nature, though it was not true. And I submit to you that we have false prophets today. People speaking, but what they say may sound good, may make people feel good, but may lead people astray. So we want to look at Hosea today, and I'd like to read the first nine verses for our hearing, Hosea 9.1. Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, for you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor. The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt. and shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them. All who eat it shall be defiled, for their bread shall be for their own life and shall not come into the house of the Lord. What will you do in the appointed day and in the day of the feast of the Lord? For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up. Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver. Thorns shall be in their tents. The days of punishment have come. The days of recompense have come. Israel knows. The prophet is a fool. The spiritual man is insane because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity. The watchman of Ephraim is with my God, but the prophet is a fowl or snare in all his ways, enmity in the house of his God. They are deeply corrupted as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish their sins. So our title today is from verse 9. He remembers. Let's walk our way through these nine verses, and then we will come to applications. First of all, notice in verses 1 through 4, as you follow your notes, the Lord exposes the sinful behavior of Israel. And yes, sometimes it seems like a broken record. We've had this before. But he keeps exposing what's wrong in this nation. And so he says that Israel should not rejoice as if there's no sin in them. He says in verse 1, Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples. You have a problem that prevents you from truly rejoicing. So don't rejoice as probably the pagans around you, the nations around you do. It's not party time because there's a real problem in Israel. You have played the harlot against your God. Remember, Hosea is an object lesson. He married an adulterous wife. It was a prophetic lesson to the people of Israel prophetic and speaking to the nation of Israel that they had turned away from Jehovah, from Yahweh. They had gone a-whoring after false deities, false gods, spiritual harlotry. And notice how he says in verse 1, you've played the harlot against your God. You have been unfaithful. Here's the cause you shouldn't rejoice. You can't cover over your sin with some kind of superficial joy. You have been a spiritual adulterer, adulteress. Spiritual harlotry against God, forsaking God, turning your face from Him. And here's what was in your heart. You have loved the higher, the prostitutes higher. on every threshing floor. You say, what is that all about? Is this going on in your heart? The threshing floor is where the grain would be brought. A threshing floor was a place where the chaff could be separated from the kernel, from the grain. And Israel was thinking that Baal had provided their food, their grain, for their bread. And so he says, because you've worshipped Baal, you've loved what you think Baal has given you, but I'm the one who gave it to you. The threshing floor was a very significant place, and it's possible that these were locations of the Baal worship, this threshing floor. He said, you've made love for hire. You love the harlot's wages. You prostituted yourself to Baal. You received the grain, the wine. You thought from him, but it wasn't from him. This is your problem. James says in the book of James chapter 4, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? The people of God, we the people of God need to watch out for the propensity, the bent of our hearts to commit spiritual adultery and turn away from the Lord and to love the world and the world system more than we love God. May God help us to be sensitive to the Lord, to love him. To the great church at Ephesus, the angel writes in the book of Revelation, I have this against you. You have lost your first love. Israel had done that. Turned from God and turned to Baalism and other worship. So it's very graphic here of what was going on. And the Lord says, don't rejoice. You've got a real problem. Notice verse two. the threshing floor, and the wine press. So the wine press is where grapes would be brought, and people would get in there with bare feet and trample the grapes. And the juice would flow and it would go into another level and then they could take the juice from there. It was very important in the culture of Israel to have this product, the fruit of the vine, the juice from the grape. And he says, your wine presses in your threshing floor will not feed them. It's not going to be sufficient for you. It's not going to lead you to fulfillment. the threshing floor will not provide food, the wine press will not nourish, and the new wine is going to fail. You see that little word, feed, the third line down in my Bible in verse 2? To pastor, to shepherd, So you're going to Baalism thinking that you would find direction and fulfillment and nourishment there, but you are like sheep going astray. You've turned your own way. It's not going to satisfy you. What a lesson for today. What a lesson. Only Jesus satisfies. Only Jesus satisfies. And if you are 8, 18, or 80, only Jesus satisfies. We come to Him, we can find meaning and purpose in Him. We can find the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, and He will fulfill us. He said, I'm the bread of life, come to me. I'll take away spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst. He is the one that fulfills. Let's not be deceived. As our whole culture around us teaches us, that if you have the right amount of money, if you look the right way, if you have the right appearance, if you have the right friends, if you have, you name it, then you can be satisfied. And there are people who have all of that and are so empty. If you ever wondered these tragic stories of people that are stars They have been famous, been successful, very wealthy, and they end their lives. Why? Because nothing satisfies except Jesus Christ. And the devil is very good to turn people to other things. But where we need to turn is to Christ. He will satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts. So Israel is deceived and disappointed. The new wine shall fail. Well, deceiver is the idea. You're not going to be satisfied by these things that are part of Baal's system. Don't, Israel, be deceived because then you will be disappointed. And then he comes right out and says what's gonna happen. So Hosea is speaking to his audience, the northern tribes of Israel, and this is somewhere around the mid-700s BC, before Christ. And at 722, indeed, Assyria would come and carry them away, captives, exile. He's warning them. And here he says, they shall not dwell in the Lord's land. They're going to be moved away to another land. Israel will go to other lands. Israel will not abide here in the Lord's land. She will be taken out as judgment, as penalty. But look at this. Isn't this intriguing? In the mid part of verse 3, Ephraim, keep in mind, Ephraim was the prominent tribe of the north. So sometimes we hear of Ephraim, sometimes we hear of capital cities, Samaria. Sometimes Israel. We're talking about this northern block of ten nations. Ephraim shall return to Egypt. Wait a minute. We read it in our psalm today. They came from Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. And now they're going back? 700 years before God brought them out of Egypt. And now because of their disobedience to the Lord and their idolatry, their spiritual idolatry, he said they're going to return to Egypt and to Assyria because it says they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. Unclean food there where they're carried away a captive. Isn't that a tragedy that they will return many generations later after God did this colossal miracle to bring them through the Red Sea? 1445 BC was the Exodus and now 700 something Isaiah is preaching to the people and he's saying you're gonna go back. You're gonna go back to that idolatry. You're gonna go back to Assyria and it's not going to be pleasant. They will go to other lands and In verse 4, Israel will not worship acceptably. How could they? They're away from God's place, God's temple, from God's prescribed worship, so they won't worship acceptably. He says in verse 4, they shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord. It's thought that the occasion here may be around the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booze. And there were drink offerings that were poured out to the Lord, that were offered to Him, as well as the meat offerings. And He said, no drink offerings will be given here, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. You know what God wants when we sin? As believers. What He wants is a humble heart. He wants us to come to Him in humble confession. Let me give a couple scenarios here. As a believer, let's say that I find myself in some sin. And I'm fully aware of it. It was conscious. I did it. I acknowledge it in my heart, but I'm not acknowledging it to God. So I say, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to get really religious. In fact, I'm going to give the biggest offering you can imagine. Is that what God wants? How about this scenario? I sinned, or you sinned, and you come before the Lord, and you say, Lord, I sinned. Forgive me. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Lord, I'm not trying to just add religious things on top of my sin. Instead, I'm just coming to you asking for your forgiveness. God says I'm not pleased with your sacrifices. They're not from a humble, broken heart. Look at Psalm 51. This is an amazing Psalm. It reflects struggles and triumphs in the life of David. Psalm 51. There's a very important caption here. Before verse one, there are some words. To the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. David lived in a state of unrepentance for many months. Nathan the prophet came to him, told him a parable, a story. Here's this man had a choice little lamb, it was like a daughter to him, he loved this lamb. A rich man came and said, I need your lamb, I gotta feed somebody with this. And he took that man's prize little lamb. David heard that story, he was irate, he got mad. And what I imagine is that Nathan pointed his bony finger right at David and said, you're the man. That's what you did. And you took Uriah's wife. David lived in his stubborn unrepentance. And then he was confronted by a true prophet of God, by Nathan. And then he said this. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Praise God. God is a God who can cleanse, who can forgive. But notice what he says in verse 2, 3. I acknowledge my transgressions. That's what it means to confess. 1 John 1, I acknowledge. Oh, it was his fault, it was her fault, it was my mama's fault, it was my daddy's. No, it's my fault. I did it. I acknowledge it. And we live in a society of blame. Everybody and his mother and grandmother are blamed for everything. No, take responsibility when you sin. Let me take responsibility. David did this and he saw the big picture. Verse four, against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. He saw the big picture. Sin is against God. That you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. We had the privilege of being on a Zoom panel with the parent-teacher-friend association of a Christian school in Flushing. And we were contacted and said, would you be able to serve on this on this particular night? And we want you to talk about discipline of children, you and your wife. One of the first things I said is something about we're not experts. Anyone who thinks they're an expert never had kids. So one of the things that we mentioned there in discipline is to deal with it briefly, but have the child come to awareness of what they did wrong. You did this? What did mommy say? What did daddy say? He said, don't do it. Did you sin against them? Yes. You know who else you sinned against? Jesus. And so we're going to pray, administer the discipline, not abuse, discipline, and then hug and make up. And they go on, they grow, they learn authority. The bigger picture, though, is that the child not just see that they sinned against their mother or father, but against God. David saw that here. Against you, you only have I sinned. So we acknowledge our sin before the Lord. This whole psalm deserves its own treatment, but I want you to see something. Verse 16. We'll start with verse 15. Lord open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise for you do not desire sacrifice wait a minute you say a whole system in the Old Testament was about animal sacrifice but it was not a religious empty motion to be done it was a heart worship and an acknowledgment of sin. And David said, I'm not just going to get religious here and give a big sacrifice. That's not what you want. You do not delight in burnt offerings. Here's what you want, God. And I finally realized this, he's saying. Verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. And then he turns, he says, do good in your good pleasure design, build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then they shall offer bulls on your altar. After the heart's in the right place, then we can bring the big offering. Or here, the bulls, the calves, whatever it was. So God desires in our hearts to sacrifice. On Hosea's day, they had the sacrifices. They had the meat. They had the wine, drink offering. But he says, you're not pleased with that. Their sacrifices aren't pleasing to you, Lord. Their hearts weren't in the right place. No wonder he says, don't rejoice. Don't try to cover it over with a salve. And if you have not trusted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, people try to appease God thinking they can do that. I'll do something religious. I'll try to get my act together. I'll try to never miss church. I'll try to give money. You name it, all kinds of things. But it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy that He saves us. So we come and say, Lord, here's my need, and I'm coming to you for forgiveness, cleansing. And Jesus paid it all on the cross. We simply believe it. And then in the Christian life, we come, we yield ourselves to him. Yes, we give the sacrifice of praise. We give the sacrifice of our own bodies, Romans 12, 1 and 2. But it's not to get God's favor. It's because we love God and He wants all of our hearts. So Israel, back to Hosea, will not worship acceptably. The partakers of the bread would be defiled. Look at this verse 4. This is interesting. They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them. What does that mean? So a Jewish person around a dead body would become unclean. And if they eat food, that food is unclean because they've touched this dead body. So he said, it's gonna be bread like that. It's not acceptable to offer to you, Lord, because it's defiled, it's polluted. And those who eat it will be defiled. And so he says, their bread shall be for their own life. It's for your own pleasure. It's for your own selfish consumption. It's not pleasing to God. It's defiled. And so you have at it, but it's not for me. And so he says, it shall not come into the house of the Lord. The bread will not enter the Lord's house. The sacrifices and all that go with it were not pleasing to God. He wants a humble, hard attitude turned to Him. Now notice Hosea 9 verses 5 and 6. Hosea poses a penetrating question and a convicting answer. So he says to the people, what will you do in the appointed day and in the day of the feast of the Lord? And I believe he might be talking about the feast of tabernacles, of sukkoth, of booths. What are you going to do in the appointed day? And then he says, that's the question, what would you do for festival? What would you do for this feast? And here are the answers. Verse 6, indeed they are gone because of destruction. The invasion and destruction causes Israel to depart. And if they try to flee to Egypt, what will Egypt do? Gather them up. Grab them up. Memphis, the prominent city in the north of Egypt where there was burial, pyramids. And what's Memphis going to do? Bury them. Wow, bury them. So some will be lost in their rebellion against the Lord, they're carried off in judgment, they won't be there to celebrate the feast, they're gone because of destruction in many will be buried. And notice this, in verse 6, nettles or thorns, thistles, shall possess their valuables of silver. There is a weed, a noxious weed, that really loves East End Baptist Church yard. And I've noted that it is done very well after winter, and there it is, boom, all of a sudden. It's noxious, and it's got some kind of sticker thing on it. You want to be careful. You can't just reach down with your bare hands. You need gloves to pull these things up. And here they are, just kind of taking over. And they don't go away by themselves. It takes effort. Hint to the grounds maintenance team, I mean the grounds ministry team. takes effort to remove these things. But here's the point. Let's just say we just let it go year after year. Then they're joined with a big leafy thing that wants to take over as well. We just let it go. Just let the heads go. A picture of being overgrown, overtaken, that's the picture here. But what is the overgrowth taking over? their valuables of silver. You see that? In verse six, nettles shall possess their valuables of silver, their treasures, their special things. I think this is so significant because many times people place their value as a person on things. I heard a little recording from a devotional yesterday at the ladies' meeting. And sorry, ladies, I listened in. It's my wife's idea. Excellent point made. The sister was sharing, I lost both my parents, and I had to deal with all their stuff. They left it all behind. We have treasures. And sometimes we build our lives around these treasures, but they're going to be overgrown one day. We'll leave it all behind. There was a funeral procession through this small town, and two workers were working their job And they stopped in respect, leaned on their shovel, as they saw this big procession go through. It was a very prominent man in the city with great wealth. And then one man said, I wonder how much he left. A few minutes went by, and the other guy said, everything. I think he's exactly right. So the thistles here overtaking their silver because their hearts weren't right with God, their hearts were taken away. And thorns will overtake their tents, their tents of dwelling. So what a question, what an answer that Hosea asked. What are you going to do in the time of feast? You're headed to You're exiled, you're headed to discipline, perhaps even to the grave. And then the things that you thought were so valuable are just going to be overtaken by the thorns and by the thistles. In chapter 9, verse 7, Hosea then declares the arrival of judgment. And he says, the days of judgment, of punishment have come. I'm interested in this. because the word punishment here, translated punishment, is the day is visitation, the word for visitation. So the days of visitation with punishment have come. Jesus, in a positive way, wept over Jerusalem and he said, you didn't know the day of your visitation. You didn't understand when the Messiah was here in your midst. And he wept over them. He knew what would come of that city. and its treasures. Even the temple would be overthrown by the Romans about 30 or 40 years from Jesus in 70 AD. Less than 30 years. So he says, the days of visitation and punishment have come. It's a prophetic declaration. It's as if they're already here. And then he follows with this parallel statement, the days of recompense or retribution have come. Israel knows. Israel, take notice. You understand what's going on here. Pay attention. So Hosea declares the arrival of judgment. And then he goes to something that is very intriguing. I believe here, there are a couple of different ideas, but the prophet is a fool. Wait a minute, isn't Hosea a prophet? Yes, he is. Pardon me. What does he say the prophet is a fool? Is he talking about himself? I believe he's talking about those false prophets. who said, this is not going to happen. People are saying, tell us good things. We want to hear the good things, the positive things. And so Hosea is talking about them. It is possible that this is what the people were saying about him, which was not true. But I take it to be what Hosea is saying about these false prophets. The prophets are fools. And then the spiritual man is crazy, insane, he's nuts. What a sad commentary if this is the case with the so-called spiritual leaders. I'm reminded of a seminary in Manhattan. In one of their chapel services, they were making prayers to plants. Crazy. That's really radical environmentalism. Praying to the plants. The place is supposed to be training people for ministry. Praying to plants instead of the God who made the plants. So we're in that day where we have foolish people who are in prophetic roles. They have influence over people. but they're speaking lies, and they're not speaking the fear of the Lord. They're not speaking the absolute truth of the Word of God, and if you don't do that, what are you? A fool. Prophets are fools, but I'm interested in this. The spiritual man, the one who's supposed to be a spiritual man, he's crazy. Now, if indeed this was not about the people, the false prophets, if they were saying this against Hosea, it fits with this. John 10 verse 20, and many of them said about Jesus, he has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to him? I take it to be that this is what Hosea is saying about the false prophets, but how sad that there are those who call the men of God who speak God's truth also mad or crazy. They mock us when we believe that there was Noah and Noah's Ark and a global flood. Or you could be mocked out of the classroom in academia if you don't hold to evolution and ridiculous ideas. I just was watching an Answers in Genesis video And this man, this believing geologist, PhD scientist, showing one of the theories to explain some of the fossils and some of the things that happened is that we had visitation from Mars. We got all this geological evidence, fossils and all that. Oh no, the brightest people say there was something from Mars. Evidence for that? wise people being fools and crazy. But Jesus was deemed that by evil people who were the fools and the crazy ones. Notice this, back to Hosea 9, 7. Sin has grave consequences. The last part of the verse. Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great hostility, great enmity. Is this why these if they were godly prophets? Is this why they were considered mad? Because the people were so hostile toward them? He says, because of the greatness of your iniquity, your great enmity. So in the land of Israel, iniquity was abundant and animosity was abounding. Our desire as Bible believers is to speak the truth in love. We don't hate anybody. We are not homophobic. We don't hate anybody. We love God's truth. And we believe there's help and there's hope in Christ. But oh, the animosity against Christian people who stand on biblical truth today. That was in Hosea's day. There was great enmity. Notice then verses 8 through 9, Ephraim fell from his prominent position. Here's what the true prophet was to be, verse 8, the watchman of Ephraim. What does the watchman do? Let's go back to that time we have a fortified city wall. This wall is strong and there are some towers on the corners of the wall. And so a watchman could go up in the tower, he could see the horizon, he could see the approach of a chariot, or a horse or a runner. He was a watchman and he knew that if there were enemies coming, he should warn his city of the imminent danger. So here the prophet is referred to as a watchman. I love that term. But he rejected the watchman. Ephraim did. The watchman was viewed as a snare. The prophet is a fowler's snare in all his ways. enmity, and there it is again, in the house of his God. So Ephraim became an enemy to God. Listen, beloved church, when someone speaks truth from scripture in a loving way, they are not your enemy. When you speak truth to a sister or a brother in Christ out of love, you're not the enemy. Just remember that. Because a lot of times people say, you're judging me. No, I'm just saying what the Bible says is what God says. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I'm not looking down at you. I'm not judging you. I'm just telling you what God said. So people who are watchmen on the wall are our friends. They're loving us. I hear these reports about current social issues, and I've heard this more than once on various Christian podcasts or programs or things, and it goes like this. Pastors today just won't talk about these things. Well, may it not be for this church, because when the pastor is no longer a watchman on the wall, the church will be in danger. There are things that we have to talk about that we don't like to talk about, but we've got to be watchmen on the wall. And these watchmen were despised. But notice he says, the watchman of Ephraim is with my God. I like that. That's the way we want to be, representing not our opinion, but God's truth. The last part of verse 9, The first part, they are deeply corrupted as in the days of Gibeah. What is he talking about? Ephraim, Israel, Samaria, deeply corrupted? You have dug deep in your corruption and your sin against God. You are like Gibeah. Well, we got to go there and see what he's talking about. Judges chapter 19. Judges chapter 19. And we'll just survey a few verses here to get the picture. Judges chapter 19 is one of the most tragic, 19 and 20, one of the most tragic accounts in the Bible. Notice chapter 19 verse 2. This man, a Levite, it says, but his concubine played the harlot against him. He went after her, brought her back, and they were traveling. Notice verse 12. But his master said to him, we will not turn aside here in a city of foreigners who are not of the children of Israel. We will go on to Gibeah. Verse 13, this Levite said to his servant, Come, let us draw near to one of these places and spend the night in Gibeah. So verse 16, an old man came in from his work in the field at evening, who also was from the mountains of Ephraim. He was staying in Gibeah. And he saw them here and he said to them, verse 19, Verse 20, the old man said, peace be with you, however, let all your needs be my responsibility, only do not spend the night in the open square. So he brought him into his house and gave fodder to the donkeys and they washed their feet and ate and drank. And as they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city Perverted men surrounded the house and beat on the doors. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man saying, bring out the man who came to your house that we may know him. And in my Bible, maybe in yours, in italics is the word carnally. These men called perverted here said, who's that you have in your house? bring them out. We want to have illicit homosexual favors from them. Tragic story. It's multiplied in its tragedy. Verse 25, the man would not heed him so the man took his concubine and brought her out to them and they knew her and abused her all night. Absolutely tragic and then she died and then the man cut her into pieces and sent her to all the tribes of Israel as a warning and then there was a cry for war because Gibeah was in Benjamin and so here some 500 years or thereabouts, after this, Hosea says, you're like Gibeah. You've returned to Gibeah in your corruption. There was rape. There was perversity. There was murder. There was war. Corrupt. And so Hosea then says, you're like Gibeah. United States of America is like Gibeah. I'll just say this, because I don't want to say too much to take us in the wrong direction, but do you know, my friends, that there are people who are pushing to make pedophilia acceptable? Pushing for this. They're deeply corrupted as in the days of Gibeah. So we come lastly to this. God will deal with Ephraim's sin. Last two lines of verse 9. He, the Lord, will remember their iniquity. What a blessing to be able to come as we are to Jesus and have Him forgive all our sins and say to us, your sin and your iniquity, I will remember no more. And how different to have God say, I remember what you did. The people all over the globe think that they can hide from God because they don't want to face up to him, so they say he doesn't exist. But he remembers the iniquity, he knows. And then he says he will punish their sins. So they would go off into this captivity. They would become slaves again, evilly treated, like going back to Egypt. And God would discipline them there. But we'll get to the end of Hosea, Lord willing, at his time and see how that he loved them again. He took them back. He restored them. And so there's a wonderful application, many applications to us from this. Let me list these. Four words beginning with F. The first one is fulfillment. Hosea 9.2. They're going to be empty. The threshing floor, the wine press shall not feed them. Fulfillment only in Christ can a human being find true fulfillment. I remember a man who told me once as he was going through his marriage trouble and wanted me to tell him, yes, get rid of her. She's no good. But I wouldn't say that. But he told me about the lady at the club. who said, well, of course, you know, when everything falls apart, I will be here. There is no fulfillment in any of the devil's tricks. Jesus said in John 10, 10, I have come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly. In Christ, we can find true fulfillment and we can have the guilt of our sins removed if we will just come to the cross and believe in Christ and be saved. The next word for application is frustration. Hosea 9.7, the prophet's a fool, the spiritual man is insane. When God's true shepherds are despised by people and cultures, they invite the condemnation of God's truth on them. When God's true shepherds are despised by people and cultures, then they invite the condemnation of God's truth on them. The fool is the one who said in his own heart, there is no God. And notice verse eight, the watchman of Ephraim is with my God. Foresight, watchmen on the wall give warnings of imminent danger. Sometimes we go through a period of human growth from about maybe age 10, maybe 12, to about 25. We can't be told. And we think mom is crazy, dad's a fool, he doesn't know what he's doing, he doesn't know what, why are they giving me these rules, these direction? Here's why, because they're watchmen on the wall. They can see what's coming, they've been there, they know what's going on, and they're saying that out of love to you. Don't hang with that person, it's not going to be good for you. Don't go there. Don't do this. It's a matter of love. And when there are parameters in a Bible-believing church, we're not going to go down that road because its end is not good. That's a blessing. When watchmen on the wall speak the truth, they're not hating people, they're loving people. And the last one is this, finality. The day of visitation, he will remember. their iniquity. Finality, visitation. Don't reject God's gracious visitation. Jesus came. He died. He was buried. He rose again. Believe that. God visited us. He visited planet Earth. Don't reject that visitation. We say to our world, to our city, to our world, don't reject that visitation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And if you do, there will be another visitation, and it's not going to be pretty. Judgment will follow. God has the final word. Let's bow together in prayer. With your heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to share a song with you. I'm going to share these words. In this hymnal, it was titled All my life long I had panted, in some hymnals it's titled Satisfied. All my life long I had panted for a drink from some cool spring that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within. Feeding on the husks around me, till my strength was almost gone, longed my soul for something better, only still to hunger on. Poor I was, and sought for riches, something that would satisfy, but the dust I gathered round me only mocked my soul's sad cry. well of water ever springing, bread of life so rich and free, untold wealth that never faileth, my Redeemer is to me. And the refrain, hallelujah, I have found him, whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longing. Through his blood, I now am saved. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, is there anyone here who would say, I've been looking for satisfaction in the wrong places. I realize Jesus is the only one who can give me forgiveness of sins and satisfy the longings of my heart. And so the best I know how, in my heart, I'm coming to Him and I'm asking Him to forgive me I'm putting my trust in His death, His burial, His resurrection. Pray for me. Would you just raise up your hand? Raise it up. God sees. God knows. I've been looking in the wrong places, but I want to come to Jesus and believe in Him as my Savior and find forgiveness of sins in Him. Amen. Any others? Our Father, I pray that we will come to Jesus and that we will rejoice in the satisfaction we can have in Him. I pray, Lord, that we will appreciate the warnings of Your Word Lord, I pray that no one would leave this place today without having trusted in Jesus. I pray, Lord, that you will take away the lies of Satan, that satisfaction can be found in things, in money, in possessions, in positions, in relationships. Lord, show us to never forget it's only in Jesus. and keep us close to Him, and make us Your watchmen on the walls. For Your honor and glory we pray, in Jesus' powerful name, Amen.